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@Pioneer1 Yes. Everything must be from how WE operate. I think Belamy's work is great with some tweaks that inject black thought. Much of Socialism/Communism actually comes from Black systems of living if one looks at them closely. But bastardized. TERRIBLY bastardized by those who thought they could co-opt it without consequence. So I don't dismiss them. They simply don't think the way we do, so when they attempt to recreate our ways of living, communal ways, they have no idea how to execute it without injecting their greed, hierarchy, violence, etc., etc., etc. Even countries where it worked to a degree, Communism had already been grossly bastardized because those cultures were already decades bastardized. You are too right reference atheists. Where this proves true is in science. It expresses like a new religion. So far, much of what I've seen of science and its dogmas matches Christian principles and mindset. The process of coming to conclusions in science feels frighteningly religious when it comes to their conclusions about their observations. Indeed reference European ideas of Utopia. Yes. Without a change of mindset, nothing else can change.

That is how I see it.

@Cynique The only ones I've never experienced, not even anything close to it, are the late for class, not ready for test, don't have paper that is due dream. Yes. Life is but a dream.

My experiences all day, everyday. No clue how I know some things. I will say or write something that I've never read anywhere, then go look it up to see if anyone has thought about it. I will sometimes find conversations on the topic (very few), but I've reached a point where many things that are coming to me, no one is discussing. When I put the question or idea to others who have never heard it before, they look at me like dear in headlights. Then the "WOOOOW, I never thought of that. That's deep!" invariably comes. LOL. Next, comes the idea beginning to surface. It's all very interesting. When my sister died, I cut myself off from it all because I didn't want to know anything anymore. Many things stopped coming, not all. It is only recently since I've been opening up again that things are beginning to flood in. Strange yet familiar feeling.

@Troy Yes. I agree. It is irrelevant whether race is real or not real in this context. Racism is real because it is a behavior based on a belief. If a psycho BELIEVES that I am a demon and that all demons sent by Satan should be killed, he/she will ACT based on this erroneous belief. Am I a demon? Maybe. Maybe not. But it won't matter to the psycho who has power over me and thinks I'm a demon, and, who might even be hallucinating and physically seeing me as a demon. He will try to kill me based on what HE sees, NOT what I see and believe I know to be true about myself. To me, the truth matters, but it doesn't matter to me when it comes to someone harming me. Don't touch me...I don't care if something is true or false. Believe whatever you want, just leave me alone and don't oppress me because of your belief if I'm not bothering you physically. I don't have the energy for people's psychosis. That's my thing.

@Mel Hopkins Yes!!! I have had far too many "coincidences" for it to be only a coincidence when I tap into folks. I dreamed a rather frightening dream 12 years ago. I have found that I tap into numerous aspects of my abilities, in dreams, clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, etc. In the dream, I was losing my teeth. I learned from my grandmother about what this dream means, but never took much stock in it. I figured it was foolishness, old wives' tales, whatever. So I went about my life not thinking about such nonsense. Typically in the dream, one tooth falls out. In my dream, all my teeth were coming out. This was strange to me given that at 50 years old, I've never had a cavity. Ever. I was terrified and woke in a frenzy. Given that I've had other strange occurrences, some dream related some not, which i always shared after an incident happened, I decided this time I would tell someone about it in advance. I called up a friend and told him about the dream. I then sent myself an email, typing out the entire dream. Although I wasn't fully on board, it was unnerving this time around because it was the third time I dreamed of teeth coming out and someone died shortly after. So by this third dream, I was virtually converted. The first two dreams, only a single tooth came out. This was on a Sunday. My father called me on Wednesday to tell me that my 16 year old sister, with no illness, no previous medical conditions, collapsed during outdoor gym and died on the spot. Throughout my life, I've had numerous things like that happen. I would say something to someone and they would tell me they were just thinking that. Knowing who was calling when my phone rang...before caller ID. Now, with caller ID, sometimes knowing who I will soon get a call from. Thinking about someone heavily for a day or two, someone whom I hadn't spoken to in over a year, then they call me. My lover saying something that I was thinking, but we'd never discussed. So many stories. Too many. I agree on how THE ONE MIND expands and how we seek peace. THAT is the crux of how I see it, at the end of it all. When we return to one mind, seeing each other's thoughts, we return to peace. Nothing in me panics when I imagine sharing one thought with numerous people, or not so much a single thought, but a connection to all thoughts. In Deep Space Nine, there is a being called a Changeling. This Changeling comes from what could be called a sea, or ocean. The ocean is all the Changelings together in their original form, knowing every thought and experience of every Changeling that has gone into the world to form as a "solid" to experience what it is like to be a bird, or human, or object. That is how I view The ONE. The Changelings individuate to learn, then come together to share and be at peace.

Yes @Delano and @Mel Hopkins. Anytime you are not allowed to make a scientific inquiry about a conclusion (basically ask questions about why a thing has seemingly changed), it is censorship. If I, a lay person, is not allowed to ask a scientist about their conclusions on what they've observed, that is censorship. All science should be transparent so that any human on Earth, if they decided to, could conduct the experiment and reach the same outcomes...then, be allowed to come to their own conclusions about the outcome.

Thanks for sharing this @Delano. In different terms, I have dissected and discussed all the dogmas he's mentioned.

@Troy Very unfortunate. Oh I remember reference QBR Magazine. When I was working with him, I did the layout for a few issues given that I also do graphic design. I've been to other book fairs, small and insignificant, so can't even remember the name of them. I also attend fairly regularly the Book Expo. Not much these days.

Which post? Here is the summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_of_My_Mind

It's a strange question for me given the way I think and imagine the society can be restructured. Remember, I believe anything is possible. LOL. Edward Bellamy created the culture I've imagined in his fiction novel, Looking Backward. I really enjoyed the work because I see the way that writer sees. Others may not see his work as valuable or possible, but I see the culture working well the way he created it. Grab a copy if there is any interest. LOL @ "Trump is putting an end to that. Indeed he is trying his best. I don't know, but from what I see, this culture's egregore is nuts. Plain unstable. It's all madness to me. But, so it goes. I do what I do and hope something will be undone.

@Delano Yes! I like this.

@Delano The book I mentioned was, Mind Of My Mind by Octavia Butler. It is a fiction book.

This language can never fully capture our minds. We think in far more dimensions than this language can even begin to communicate.

@Troy Yes indeed reference television, et al. I believe social media, television, etc., are all wonderful, in the right hands. But because of what I've seen, I don't believe they are in the right hands, so I leave them alone. Because I believe they are more toxic than helpful, I don't bother. But I can only speak to what has changed for me since discarding the television. I've become a far better person in every area of my life, especially intellectually. I'll keep a bottle of wine chilled for you if you ever visit. Because of the way in which I envision telepathy, I believe it would far better. I see it a certain way and have dissected how I think it unfolds. No way for me to explain it here (requires a round table discussion), but I've seen writers dissect telepathy in a way that makes it clear to me that it would clear up a lot of problems we have today. But again, that is just my opinion.

I love Octavia Butler's Mind of My Mind because her characters use telepathy in an interesting way. I have believed for some time that it was possible we once only used telepathy, and verbal language has been a degeneration away from our purer state of communicating. Basically, something ruined us. Maybe processed food, bad air, bad water, or a disaster on Earth, dunno. Just some thoughts/ideas I play with. @Cynique I learned not too long ago that effect is the proper word when writing effect change. I went through several grammar websites. Effect change means to "bring about" change. Specifically, bring about a different state of affairs. So yes, it was deliberate. I want to bring about change....change the state of affairs in this world. @Delano I'm glad it's not odd to you! I have had a couple writer friends tell me it is strange since I love to write! LOL. But that is the nature of communication. There are some things one cannot get folks to understand. No amount of words anyone told me over the course of my life could get me to TRULY understand the pain that is child birth. I was told it is horrible, it hurts like hell, it's the worst pain ever. But hearing all of that STILL didn't instill in me an understanding. It would have required telepathy for me to understand them prior to having my own child. When I had my own children, THEN I understood. LOL. So it is with many things I want to get folks to understand. I am fully aware that they won't, because they do not understand the way I think. I believe I think in 7 dimensions. LOL. How do I explain some of the off the beaten path ideas I have to people who have the ability to think in 7 dimensions, but have been trained by this world (all of us were) to think in only 2 or 3 dimensions. I believe we ALL have the ability, but so many are stuck on following the status quo and repeating what talking heads say, and the news says, that they can never escape the trap of their dimension. This is why i tossed my television in the trash over 10 years ago. I saw what it was doing to me...keeping me stuck in a single dimension. When I got rid of it, my learning increased 1,000 fold. I began to see things differently, I dreamed differently, colors looked different. Everything changed for me by the single act of not letting something else think for me, speak for me and provide me with images of the world. Images that always remain the same across all news sources. New questions were never asked. I began to know more about the world than those who watched television. LOL. I also began to realize what I needed to know, what was important, rather than what the television told me was important, and I needed to know about the world by its reports. Anyhoo, I ramble again. But yeah, again, glad you don't think it's odd.

As I writer, I use words to effect change. Yes. Interestingly, it has been this writing life that has led me to see words as a hinderance. Odd, I know. But it is what it is. From what I have observed, the more words we create, it seems there are more problems in the world. The dictionary got bigger and wars increased. But, that's just how I see it. Others may see something else.

Trust, even I agree with my own statements only sometimes. There are always nuances and factors that can cause me to adjust slightly any idea. I allow myself to always ask, "what if?" What if I could be wrong? What if there is something I don't know? Something I am missing. Simply, what if...?

I appreicate your thoughts overall. Yes! LOL.

See, you and I are gonna invent flying in a new way. LOL.

@Mel Hopkins Yeesss!! I SOOO think in images!!! I know when to be silent. When I see people are shackled to words, I drop the conversation, because I know they cannot understand the images I see and the meaning I've derived or created from those images. The cartoon you posted is so on point. LOL.

@Troy As you might remember, I worked with the founder on the Harlem Book Fair over 10 years ago for one year, then more recently for a single year. I worked in-house with him that decade ago. I am painfully aware of a list of reasons why the event has declined. @Troy Just read your comment on that site. I agree 100%. It is NOT gentrification at all. And certainly not promotion.

@Mel Hopkins It is interesting that you posted this. I just responded to something stating that we shouldn't get hung up on the words when it comes to certain things. I have had long discussions with folks on the difference between definition and meaning. This culture is focused on the words in a dictionary and keeping us trapped in that. When in many old world cultures, meaning was what was primary. I try to think in terms of meaning, rather than merely words. Words sometimes confine us, cage us, and keep us unable to see beyond the word itself. We tend not look within because we don't trust our own thoughts, ideas and meaning. So many need words to ground them in ideas. I don't. Meaning, in my opinion, is a far more enriching way to live and understand each other and the world. It opens us up to myriad thoughts and ideas unconfined by the words we let dominate our thoughts and emotions.

@Troy Let me first set the stage for my answer. I am NOT hung up on words/terms. So the term race means nothing to me in the context of my overall ideas. Race is just a word that a human created to describe something they are observing. The word (race) is a filler for their conclusions around an observation. I am focused on the observations and then, how I interpret what I observe, not how someone else interprets this very real observation of phenotype. So try to not to be attached to the word race too much, even as I use the word to forward the conversation at times. I live in the space of ideas and thoughts where there are no words interfering with my observations. For example, before there was a word for gravity, it existed and people knew it existed. They didn't need a word for it. We don't need a word for it now. We experience and know it is there, doing something for or to us. Having a word does not make a thing real or not real. So race is just a word. The conversation for me is whether or not there is something observable here. And there is. Some have decided to interpret this observation one way (with the word race) and others have decided to interpret it another way (with the word phenotype or ancestry). Again, don't jump on the words and the definitions humans have given to them. Focus ONLY on the observations made visually and biologically, then you will come to your OWN conclusions about what is being observed, rather than the conclusions being handed to you. To your question. I have absolutely no idea how many races exist, if there are even what we call races. Remember what I told you...I believe that "races" is just a cunning term for "phenotype". Essentially, it is a construct. BUT, being a construct does not mean that phenotype, where I think they derived the term/idea race from, doesn't exist. Phenotype is real and observable. I believe it is POSSIBLE, based on observation, that there are differences in our DNA that make us look the ways that we do. Looking at what makes us the same, doesn't mean there is nothing to see that makes us different. Someone with Down Syndrome doesn't cease to be different overall biologically from humans. Their 99% sameness to the human species is irrelevant. The DNA clearly shows an issue that they have pinpointed scientifically that makes someone who has Down Syndrome LOOK the way they look. So the sameness as a species, that can be discerned by DNA, does not negate the fact that there is a difference that can be pinpointed, by DNA, as has been done with Down Syndrome. I also try to remember that the inability to prove something ALSO does NOT make it untrue. Air existed before we could prove it. It wasn't until we created instruments and scientific methods that allowed us to understand air. The atom did not cease to exist simply because we didn't believe or know it exists. We merely didn't have the ability to observe it. Is it at all possible, in anyone's estimation, that we simply do not yet have the scientific ability to see/know/understand that there COULD be a gene(s) for phenotype(s)?? Isn't this possible? History shows this to be a fact, that there can be a thing we theorize that exists, even though we can't yet prove it. The Dogon people knew about Sirius B, yet could not prove to the people they spoke to that it was there. How did the Dogon know, without proof to present to the world? We may never know. Again, I don't know anything for sure and like some, won't pretend to. I learn and reconsider my ideas daily. I block NOTHING just because it makes me uncomfortable. I do NOT 100% reject the notion that race doesn't exist. But I also do NOT 100% reject the notion that it does. What boggles my mind is that we so easily shift with the tide of science without questioning it as an overall institution. Did you know that the co-founder of the DNA Helix, James D. Watson, made a statement that blacks are less intelligent than whites? LOL. I've been sitting with his statement and what it all means. I'm still dissecting it and letting it unfold into what it implies scientifically. And why he, one of the fathers of Western DNA discovery, would say this. I am not an all powerful being and cannot know all. And that goes for every single human being on planet Earth. It is dangerous for us to always fall in line with only how others interpret real scientific observations. We shouldn't dismiss every single thing that comes our way, but we shouldn't be afraid to question it either. That is how we invent, by questioning our observations...by questioning gravity so we can invent the plane. Questioning a thing doesn't mean one believes it doesn't (or does) exist. It simply means they are attempting to see it differently, so they can understand it and create from that new understanding. That is why we are able to fly today. No one denied that gravity exists, they simply did not accept it as the end of the conversation. I do not deny that race is an illusion, I simply do not accept this as the end of the conversation, hence why I entertain the other side. I'm here to invent flight baby!! LOL.